Canada-based food company Maple Leaf Foods has completed the acquisition of a 118,000ft² food processing plant in Indianapolis, US.

The company acquired the plant through its wholly owned subsidiary Greenleaf Foods, SPC. The deal was first announced in January.

Maple Leaf Foods will be installing equipment at the newly acquired facility to increase the tempeh production capacity to meet growing demand.

The tempeh production equipment will initially have the capacity to produce nearly 4.5 million kilograms.

The new facility is expected to enter the production phase in the first half of next year, and once fully operational, the company intends to hire approximately 115 people.

At the time of announcing the deal, Maple Leaf Foods president and CEO Michael McCain said: “Maple Leaf Foods has been purposeful in executing a multi-tiered strategy focused on capital efficiency.

“To date, we have found ways to leverage the capacity of our existing plant protein manufacturing assets while successfully utilising footprint in the rest of our network.

“At this juncture, given the high demand for our tempeh products, this project offers us the ability to deliver incremental capacity in a cost-effective, timely manner in a location that has synergies with our long-term vision.”

If the demand for tempeh products continue to increase, the facility offers flexibility to the company for further expansion.

In April 2019, Maple Leaf Foods and Greenleaf Foods SPC unveiled plans to build a $310m plant-based protein facility in Shelbyville, Indiana, US.

Maple Leaf Foods claims that the 230,000ft² plant will be the largest facility and investment of its kind in North America.

The facility will produce tempeh, franks, sausages and raw foods, as well as double the company’s existing manufacturing capacity and support a pipeline of innovation to meet rising consumer demand and fuel market growth.